Mission impossible? Implementing ethical AI systems
Professor Pekka Abrahamsson
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
There is a common agreement that ethical concerns are of high importance when it comes to systems equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Demands for ethical AI are declared from all directions. As a response, in recent years, public bodies, governments, and universities have rushed in to provide a set of principles to be considered when AI-based systems are designed and used. We have learned, however, that high-level principles do not turn easily into actionable advice for practitioners. Hence, also companies are publishing their own ethical guidelines to guide their AI development. These guidelines do not seem to help the developers. To bridge this gap, we present a method for implementing AI Ethics in practice. The ECCOLA method has been developed in collaboration with researchers and practitioners in the field, and it is under proof-testing in several AI companies. The presentation outlines the method and its practical use cases.
Strategic Problem-Solving for Reinventing Your Business Model
Prof. Leandro F. Pereira, Ph.D. PMP
WINNING Scientific Management, Portugal
The business world is rapidly progressing into a new era, in which the prevalence of a common purpose is the key criterion for ecosystems when passing judgment on an organisation. Stakeholders have become increasingly demanding and fully alert to such matters as the quality of the interaction with an organisation, valuing their experience and expectations, whilst assessing organisational conduct and behaviour. The pandemic has greatly accelerated the advent of Industry 4.0. Business models have sought to strengthen their technological dimension, supply chains have been restructured, and education and academia have needed to reinvent themselves fully. Many companies and businesses were forced to diverge from their incumbent strategies to more innovative ones, adapting to a new reality in order to survive. It has become abundantly clear that the only truly sustainable competitive advantage for an organization lies in its capacity to reinvent itself and replace incumbent paradigms with better business models, ones that best fit a dynamic and constantly changing macroenvironment. It is also key to emphasize the role of technology and its omnipresence across all types of businesses, rendering the notion of business reinvention meaningless without the inclusion of a technological paradigm shift. Digital transformation has majorly impacted the way brands operate and manifest themselves next to key constituencies and, most remarkably, consumers. It is rather cumbersome to conceive of the idea of selling products or providing services, short of technology being present at some stage of the journey. In particular, the use of platforms or sales systems has become almost a requirement for those who want to explore the online market. In recent years, e-commerce and e-marketplaces have become the primary means for purchasing products and services, but this was nothing compared to the magnitude of what we are witnessing today. People want to be surprised, they want new and different things, and they want them now. They seek ease of access and simplification of their daily tasks and routines. Perhaps it is not the product or the service that should be changed, but the way in which the user/consumer experience utilizes the product or service. It is important to note that company lifecycles have never been shorter, as a consequence of a context of V.U.C.A (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), so a permanent transformation of the business model is a mandatory principle for survival. Digital business strategy and innovation are thus mandatory for the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage.
Software Project Management: Myths versus Reality
Prof. Lawrence Peters, PhD, CSDP
Software Consultants International Limited, USA
While there have been some projects deemed successful, Software Engineering has a long history of projects being late, over budget and cancelled. This is in spite of a constant stream of new programming methods, programming languages and software project management “systems” all promising to solve the “software problem.” This talk attempts tp put this history into perspective by exploring the importance of the software project manager and its role in bringing software projects to a successful conclusion. As part of this presentation, several beliefs software project managers hold as self-evident are examined and put to the test of reality from published studies showing contrary results. Recommendations for improving this situation via training are included showing the need as a means of reducing the creation of beliefs based on hearsay but based on facts and data.